How to Fix Sagging Headliner Without Removing it

If you own an old car, or if you use it a lot and expose it to heat at most times or if you are a little lazy when it comes to the repair and maintenance of your car, the car’s headliner may become loose and start to sag.

Replacing the whole headliner is a costly process, and therefore it is mostly recommended to use methods that can fix it and elongate its lifespan rather than replacing it on the whole.

What is a headliner, why is it important, and why does it get sagged?

A headliner is a soft fabric that is pasted on your car’s roof.

Its main job is to act as an insulating layer and, thus, to maintain the temperature of the car in both summers, when the sun is too high and in winters, when the temperature falls really low.

It also absorbs the sound waves keeping the inside of the car less noisy than the outside environment. This is crucial, as loud noises interfere with one’s driving.

The headliner is pasted on to the roof of the car with an adhesive, which, when exposed to heat, starts to lose its sticking ability.

Due to this, the headliner overtime becomes sagged and loose. It also makes your car look bad and takes away the aesthetic look of the car.

What to do when a headliner becomes loose or sagged?

One way is to replace the whole headliner. This is both timely and costly. There are other ways that involve repairing the headliner. These are considerably less costly and do the job for at least a few months.

Given below are some of the best and the most practical ways that we could come up with that will help you in repairing your headliner without having to remove it or replace it entirely.

Stick the headliner back to the surface of the roof using glue:

The headliner is already pasted to the surface of the roof with glue, the effects of which have faded away over time.

To stick the headliner back on to the surface, the first thing that you can try issuing glue. All you have to do is get glue and apply it to all the areas from where the headliner has become sagged or loose.

Just apply some pressure on to that area for some time so that the glue is dried and holds the headliner in place.

Before applying the glue, make sure the surface is clean and dry, and while you are applying the glue, keep it even to achieve the best results.

There are several types of glues available in the market. Some of the fast ones include hot glues. There are glues specifically designed for this purpose as well. You can even purchase those. This process is really cheap, as it only involves the cost of the glue.

Use Double-sided Tape to stick the headliner back to the surface

Another material that you can try using to stick the headliner back to the surface is double-sided tape.

The best thing about this material is that it’s less messy than glue. Just take pieces of the double-sided tape and stick one side on the surface and then carefully press the headliner on the other side.

The problem with this is that it doesn’t spread evenly like glue, so either you will have to cut the pieces of the tape in the shape of the loose headliner, which is timely and hard to do, or you will have to apply it to edges leaving sir bubbles in the middle.

Due to these reasons, this method is only preferable when the damage is small and needs an only little repair.

The best thing about double-sided tape is that if the headliner becomes loose again, you can simply pull the tape off and then re-apply new tape.

In the case of glue, the previous layer of glue would still be on the surface when you apply the new layer, which is messy.

Revive the stickiness of the adhesive by heating it with the help of a hairdryer:

In most cases, the headliner only becomes loose but is still sticking to the roof. This mostly happens when the adhesive that is holding the headliner still in its place is still there. It has just started to lose its stickiness.

This is good, as you can revive the stickiness of the adhesive simply by heating it enough to melt the glue.

You can do this using a steam cleaner or a hairdryer etc. all you have to do is apply the steam or the heat to all the sagged areas. Once you think the glue has been heated enough, you can press back the headliner on to the surface so that it sticks.

To make it uniform, you can also roll it with a paint roller, etc. to spread the glue evenly on the whole surface.

Hold the sagging headliner in place using thumb pins:

Another method that requires almost no time and is the cheapest of all, if you want to hold the headliner in place for a while, is using thumb pins.

All you have to do is put the pins in the loose edges of the headliner and press hard so that the headliner gets pinned to the backboard holding it.

To make it look appealing, you can try using thumb pins in different colors and putting them up in patterns, etc.
The only downside to this method is that once the pins are removed or unable to hold the headliner in place, there is either going to be needed for more pins or if you apply any other method, at this stage, the holes of the pins would still remain. But if you are careful, the results would still be appealing.

Using Staple Pins and Hair Spray

Another tried method that works in some cases is holding the headliner in place with staple pins initially and then spraying it with hair spray.

It’s not possible to staple the headliner back in place with the help of a simple stapler, but it can be done using a staple gun.

The fabric of the headliner is thin, and staple pins with the help of the gun should easily pass through and fix it to the backboard.

Once the headliner is in place, spray it with hair spray. Hair spray has the property of melting the adhesive. This way, it will gain back its stickiness, and the headliner will stick back in its place.

Once this is done, you can remove the staple pins. Just be sure that while you are pulling them out, you don’t accidentally tear up the fabric of the headliner. Also, it is better to use the minimum number of pins required as they will leave behind small holes.

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Fix it with the help of clear-headed twist pins

Clear-headed pins are special kinds of pins that have a pointy head that twists into their head.

All you have to do while pinning these pins to the headline is that you need to put the pin against the surface of the headliner and then twist. The headliner will then stick to the backboard. You can use these pins as well to make a design on your backboard.

The best thing about these clear-headed twist pins is that unlike the other types of pins that you can use such as thumb pins or staple pins, these do not leave any holes in your headliner which may damage it in a long run and other than that they are also pretty cheap, easily available and easy to use.

Things to keep in mind before using any of the above-mentioned methods:

These are some of the things that you should keep in mind before using any of the above-mentioned methods:

• Clean the surface of the backboard before you apply any glue or adhesive etc.
• While using pins, make sure that you put the least number of them as they will leave behind holes if in case you have to remove them.
• Removing thumb pins or staple pins might tear the fabric, so be careful.
• If you are applying glue or any adhesive, spread it evenly to achieve the best results. You can do so with the help of a paint roller etc. Otherwise, it may look uneven and result in a distorted image.

Final Thoughts:

It is highly important to understand, in this case, that all the above-mentioned methods are temporary, and neither of them can fix the sagging headliner permanently.

These methods are most recommended when only a small portion of the headliner is damaged. This way, you will be able to slow down the loosening of the headliner.

If the damage, however, is big and not repairable, then it is preferred to get the headliner replaced.